Dermatologists
Local SEO for dermatology practices.
Between eight and fifteen percent of medical patients take up a cosmetic procedure within a year. That single number should decide how the whole site is weighted, and in most practices it decides nothing.
- $150 to $350
- patient acquisition cost, dermatology benchmark
- $2,600 to $8,000+
- blended patient lifetime value
- 8 to 15%
- of medical patients converting to cosmetic within 12 months
- $610
- cosmetic surgery acquisition cost, the highest of any specialty
The medical patient is the cheapest cosmetic patient you can buy
These are published 2026 benchmarks. Put them next to each other and the strategy writes itself.
| Dermatology patient acquisition cost | $150 to $350 | some sources $250 to $500 |
|---|---|---|
| Cosmetic surgery patient acquisition cost | $610 | highest of any specialty |
| Blended patient lifetime value | $2,600 to $8,000 and above | |
| Medical to cosmetic conversion within a year | 8 to 15% | with a systematic programme |
You can buy a cosmetic patient at $610, or acquire one at $250 and wait.
A skin check patient acquired through a medical search costs less than half what a cosmetic patient costs to acquire directly, and a systematic cross-sell converts between eight and fifteen percent of them within twelve months. The practices spending everything on cosmetic keyword competition are paying the highest acquisition cost in medicine for patients they could have reached through mole mapping.
Benchmarks are 2026 figures from healthcare marketing sources. Conversion rates depend on having an actual programme, not on the ratio existing by itself.
What you may and may not say, and why it shapes the site
Dermatology sits across two regulatory worlds. The medical side is bound by advertising rules that vary by market and usually restrict testimonials about clinical outcomes, before and after imagery, and any claim implying a guaranteed result. The cosmetic side is bound by the same rules and is where practices most often breach them.
This is not a footnote. It removes the two most persuasive assets available to most local businesses, reviews describing results and photographs of outcomes, and it means the site has to persuade some other way.
What is left is genuinely useful clinical explanation written by a named practitioner: what the condition is, what the treatment involves, what it costs, what it feels like, and honestly, when it does not work. That content ranks well, converts well, and does not put a registration at risk. It also happens to be what the search results in this field are conspicuously short of, and it should be marked up honestly rather than dressed with review stars the rules do not allow you.
Four search families, and they behave nothing alike
| Search type | What they type | Where their head is at | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| Symptom and condition | mole changed shape, itchy rash won't go away, scalp psoriasis treatment | Worried, researching, has not decided to see anyone. Highest volume by far. | Highest |
| Screening | skin check near me, mole mapping [city], skin cancer screening cost | Ready to book. The lowest cost patient you can acquire and the gateway to everything else. | Highest |
| Cosmetic procedure | laser resurfacing [city], acne scar treatment, pigmentation removal cost | Comparing clinics on price and photographs. The most expensive traffic in medicine. | High |
| Access and referral | dermatologist without referral, bulk billing dermatologist, dermatologist waiting time | Blocked by process rather than by decision. Answer it and you get the booking. | High |
Four things that work inside the advertising rules
Condition pages written by a named clinician
Not a content agency. What it is, how it is diagnosed, what the treatment involves, how long it takes, what it costs. Attribution to a real registered practitioner is both a trust signal and the thing that makes the page defensible.
The access questions, answered plainly
Whether a referral is needed, what the wait is, what is covered and what is not. These are the questions that stop bookings, they are searched constantly, and most practice sites do not answer any of them.
A skin check page that is easy to act on
It is the cheapest patient acquisition in the specialty and the entry point to everything else. Price, duration, what happens in the appointment, and a booking route that takes under a minute.
Reviews about the experience, not the outcome
Clinical outcome testimonials are restricted in most markets. Reviews about the wait, the explanation, the reception staff and the follow-up are not, and they are what a nervous patient is actually reading for.
Six months, medical first
Weeks 1 to 4
Listing, practitioners and access
Practice listing and individual practitioner listings where they are appropriate. Then answer the access questions on the site, because those are the ones stopping bookings you have already earned.
Weeks 4 to 12
Twelve condition pages, clinician written
The twelve conditions you see most. Real clinical explanation with a named author. This is the volume and it is the part that most practice sites outsource and get wrong.
Months 3 to 5
The screening funnel
Skin check, mole mapping, what a suspicious lesion looks like. High intent, low competition compared with cosmetic terms, and the acquisition channel the cross-sell arithmetic depends on.
Months 4 to 6
Cosmetic, last and deliberately
Once the medical side is producing patients, the cosmetic pages have an audience already inside the practice. Competing for cosmetic search from a standing start means paying the highest acquisition cost in medicine.
What dermatology practices ask us
Should we focus on cosmetic or medical search?
Medical first, in almost every case. It costs less than half as much per patient, and a systematic cross-sell converts eight to fifteen percent of those patients to cosmetic work within a year. Competing directly for cosmetic search means paying the highest acquisition cost of any specialty.
Can we use before and after photographs?
It depends on your market and it is one of the most commonly breached rules in this field. Check the current advertising guidance for your registration before publishing any, because the penalty falls on the practitioner rather than on the agency.
Who should write our condition pages?
A clinician in the practice, with their name on it. It is a trust signal, it is defensible, and it is the difference between a page that ranks and one that reads like every other page on the results.
Do we need separate listings for each dermatologist?
Where practitioners are individually bookable and publicly known, usually yes. Patients search for the doctor by name after a referral, and an absent listing at that moment sends them elsewhere. Each one needs its own primary category and its details kept identical to the practice's.
What is the fastest thing we can fix?
The access questions. Whether a referral is needed, the current wait, and the cost. They are searched constantly, they stop bookings when unanswered, and they can be published this afternoon. It is the clearest case of writing for the questions customers actually ask.
Local SEO for nearby trades
What a customer is worth, and which searches actually convert, change by trade. These are the closest neighbours to this one.
See where your medical and cosmetic search actually stands.
The free audit separates the two, shows which condition and screening searches you appear for, and identifies which cosmetic terms are worth competing for and which are not.